Between Ribs
by m.march
Summary: Reid and Caleb have been sneaking around but it seems Reid just isn't what Caleb wants. Can he change that? Someone gets shot but I promise it's not a deathfic. Caleb/Reid


"Reid," His voice was low, a swallow of air exhaled into sound. "stop."

The blond smiled, his mouth against the other man's neck. "Don't wanna." He combated playfully. Why did it seem that Caleb was always telling him to stop just when things were getting fun? His hands pushed back the other's jacket, his grin growing when the dark haired boy let it fall. "And you don't really want me to." It was there game, after all. They were opposites in every way- perhaps that was what finally brought them together.

It had been a month now since their first kiss, since arguing had turned into something more. At some point Caleb had simply run out of words. It had been heated kissing at first, ending when Pogue came knocking at the door. Caleb had shoved the blond away like fire, rubbed the taste of him from his mouth and turned away. Reid had been so shocked that he'd only been able to stare after him. He hadn't told anyone and was sure that it was a onetime event. But after a tense few days Reid hadn't been able to stand it anymore, hadn't been able to get the thought of his brother out of his head. In the end, he had been the one pursuing Caleb, but the older boy had hardly been resistant. Valiant words of disagreement between tongues and hands that pulled at clothing.

It had been a good month, but something about today felt different. He wasn't warming up the way he usually did. Reid sucked at that spot on the other boy's neck, near the back of his jaw, and felt him shudder out a moan. It felt like reciprocation- it was desire that was for sure. His hands were pulling Caleb's shirt up enough to work open the belt of his pants. He had cornered him in one of the empty classrooms, and was currently trying to back him up to a desk.

"Reid." That stern voice gritted out between clenched teeth.

The blond whined. That was the voice he didn't want to hear. The one that was always telling him to behave, telling him to do his class work, not to use, not to get handsy when people could see… "What?" Reid hissed with his own familiar voice, his fingers still hooked into the front of other boy's pants. He tried to smile, tried not to let their tempers flare between them again. "I didn't look at you once in class. I didn't even doodle naught pictures of you to show Ty." He teased and then felt a jolt of worry when his lover didn't show alarm.

"I'm done."

Reid tried not to shiver. There was finality to that voice and after more than a decade of friendship, he knew it well. He frowned up at the dark haired boy, pulling his hands out of his pants to drop them at his sides. He felt like he was getting ready for a beating and wanted to walk in with his fists free. "Because you're afraid others will find out?"

"No."

"They wouldn't care." Reid continued, suspected a lie. He'd told Caleb before that their brothers would always love them, that this wouldn't change anything.

"You're not the kind of person I want to be with." Caleb uttered softly but sternly, dark eyes staring back at the blond. He didn't want to hurt him, but he had to be understood. Reid took a step back as though he'd been hit, a wince slicing across his features. It made Caleb's chest hurt, but he held his ground. "I don't want to end up like my father."

Reid forced himself to laugh even as this became about his using again. "You could never be your father, you're too much of a prude." He wanted it to sound like a joke, wanted all of this to sound like a joke.

Caleb held his gaze and it took everything he had not to reach out and sooth the boy with a touch. "I won't end up like my mother either."

The blond looked confused for a moment before realization hit. Too many emotions were turning over inside him. Guilt, anger, fear, and even a tinge of hope. Did that mean that Caleb loved him? That Reid using until it destroyed him would ruin Caleb too? He didn't have the chance to ask, the dark haired boy had picked up his jacket and walked by. "Let it go back to normal, Reid." That strong voice suggested from near the door. He sighed. "Give it a while. It'll go back to normal."

And everything had. At least, on the outside. After a few weeks Caleb had noticed that Reid wasn't using the way he used to. His temper had flared and he had gotten into more fights than ever before, but they were fights without magic. Some part of him had loved seeing his boy win even without night in his eyes, but another part still couldn't trust him to stay clean. He told himself that Reid still used, even if he didn't see or feel it like before. And when he ascended in a month it would be worse than ever.

"That's a lot of money." Tyler murmured with his back to guys they were playing, eyeing Reid as he racked up the balls on the pool table. The blonde shrugged and cocked a grin. "Does that mean you're not gonna play?"

Tyler laughed and shook his head, always willing to be goaded by his brother. The last few weeks had been hard. Reid hadn't said why he stopped using for fun and Tyler hadn't wanted to push the subject. For a while the withdrawals had been so bad that he hadn't left their dorm room. But even when the desire to use had him on edge, picking fights with anything that moved, the blond hadn't given in.

He heard the shot ring out and felt it go through him. In that split second between sound and the eruption of panic, Caleb felt his body jerk to a stand- no longer hunched over the foosball table- no longer laughing with Pogue. He felt the cold press of shock and the burst of pain and fear. His side ached somewhere between ribs and below heart.

And then the second passed. Nicky's exploded into screams and rushing movement. He spun around toward the pool tables, toward the exit that every was pouring out of, toward the blond as his knees buckled. His hands tried to grab at the side of the pool table but couldn't seem to get a grip. Tyler was behind Reid as he fell, trying to hold onto his brother and being dragged to the floor in the process.

Caleb crossed the room without thinking, pushing trough bodies until he stood over his brothers. Tyler was crying and shouting, looking around frantically at the other people. Those that remained were crowding about, dialing their cellphones and crying. Pogue was at Caleb's side, shouting at the lingering people to get back.

Caleb didn't notice them. He was staring down at Reid on the floor, his shoulders in Tyler's lap and his hands pressed to the side of his chest where red blossomed up through layers of fabric to stain even his gloved palms. His face looked so pale, his eyes glassy with tears he didn't shed. Caleb stopped breathing when he watched the other boy's lips pull into a shaky smile for him.

His knees landed hard on the floor beside him, his hands shaking as they reached out to where Reid's were pressed against ribs below heart. But just before his eyes could flash black and he could save the boy he loved, one of those bloody hands grabbed his. Surprised, Caleb looked up at Reid again, swallowing hard against fear and panic as he watched the blond shake his head. There was something sweet in his eyes and his smile, even when the hint of blood appeared at the corner of his lips. He looked at the people around them to make Caleb look at them too. To make him remember all the eyes that would see.

The sound of an ambulance sang distantly, growing closer. Pogue was spewing reassuring words and shoving people that didn't belong so close out of arms reach.

With a pained sigh, Caleb gave in to the helplessness, squeezing Reid's hand in return and finding his eyes again. He leaned in until their foreheads pressed together, not caring who saw so long as Reid was focused on him now. "You are exactly the person I want to be with." He wanted to whisper it, wanted it to be sweet, but needed to know that Reid had heard it. The blond smiled with blood on his teeth and a tear fell from Caleb's eye to Reid's cheek. He thumbed it away carefully, forcing himself to watch the pain in his lover's eyes as he coughed for air. The ambulance was outside. He could hear the footsteps. "You're going to be okay." Reid heard Caleb say and then, with their faces so close, saw the flash of black across his eyes.

It was the last thing he remembered before waking in that room of florescent light and ugly linen. He cringed at the tubes in his arm and the feeling of heavy drugs wearing off. When he tried to move, he realized that his hand was being held, gripped tight by another. His head rolled to the side to see Caleb half sitting in a chair beside the bed, half laying on the mattress at his side. Their fingers were laced and pulled close to the sleeping boy's face, so that his lips were brushing Reid's fingers.

He smiled to himself and remembered Caleb's words but the smile dropped when he recalled his eyes. He squirmed in the bed, his other hand moving to his side to probe ribs. A hissed yelp escaped his throat when he jabbed the bulk of bandages, finding it still very much there.

The cry jarred Caleb from his sleep into a full stand. His breath was quick and his eyes annoyed when they landed on the blond that looked guilty as usual. "What are you doing?" He snapped, pulling Reid's hand away from his wound.

"You used!" Reid accused.

"So?" Caleb glared.

The blond blinked for a minute before scrunching his face angrily. "Why do I still have a hole in my chest?"

With a sigh Caleb sat back down, this time on the edge of the bed. "It would have been suspicious if you didn't."

"Then what did you do?"

He shrugged and it reminded them both of one of Reid's gestures. "Cleaned out the blood from your lungs and chest, repaired a little damage." He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. "Made sure you wouldn't wake up until after they'd gotten done patching you up."

Reid blinked and then relaxed against the bed, looking around the room so as not to stare at his former lover. "Maybe you should be a doctor."

Caleb laughed a little but it died out when he realized that Reid wasn't looking at him anymore. "Ty said the guy you were cheating was the one that shot you."

He hadn't thought about it since, it had happened so fast to start with. "I wasn't cheating." Not that that was the important part.

"Why didn't you stop him?"

Reid scoffed and ignored the way it made his side hurt. "You try stopping a bullet. It's fast okay. He didn't exactly give me a count or anything. He just whipped out a fucking gun and-"

"Tyler said you haven't used in weeks." Caleb continued, watching his face even if he wouldn't return his gaze.

"Tyler seems to be saying a lot…"

Caleb licked his lips, shifting on the edge of the bed uneasily. "Did you…" He sighed, unable to find a way of asking that didn't make himself sound completely egocentric. "Did you quit for me?"

Reid tensed, eyes fixed on the far corner. "And for myself." He muttered uncomfortably.

The older boy sighed and shook his head. "Reid, if someone is going to hurt you, you should-"

"Hey! I don't have a death wish! If the bastard had given me the chance I would have used." He shouted and glared back at his brother. "But then I was shot and the whole thing had gotten out of hand. What the hell was I supposed to do? Pull a superman and hop back up? And who are you to talk? I-"

His rant was cut off by lips, ones that wanted to be passionate but settled for gentle subduing considered the current situation. Reid's lips parted just as willingly as they had the first time and Caleb felt a wash of relief. He pressed his tongue into the other boy's mouth, letting them dual while he carefully reclined the injured boy back onto the pillow. His fingers stroked blond hair even when his mouth pulled back, his face still hovering over Reid's. "I meant what I said." Caleb whispered and Reid felt dread crawl up inside him.

"I want to be with you." Caleb smiled when his blond smiled, stroking the boy's cheek. "If you'll have me?"

Reid sighed happily and closed his eyes, his lids suddenly heavy. "I was never the picky one."

So this was my first EVER fanfic. Hope someone will enjoy it as I have enjoyed the countless fics I've read here.

Comments would be appreciated!

3


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